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SHE WAS LOST IN THE MERE SIGHT OF HIM.
It was like he had been resurrected, only to come back as an evil alter-ego that wanted to cause nothing but pain against those he loved.
Ever since he left her, Arabella had found it easier to consider him dead. To her, death was easier to comprehend than the possibility of betrayal. It was the concept that he had died a good man that gave her enough strength to continue fighting.
But he was right there in front of her.
Ben.
Her Ben.
She had to take a moment to remember that her Ben and the hooded figure standing amongst the village's chaos were not the same person. The Ben she had known and loved didn't exist anymore. He was a mere figment of the girl's imagination and would only ever come back to her in dreams.
She watched him taking in the scene and the memories of Ben danced wickedly in her mind. As she looked at the man who now called himself Kylo Ren, she found herself not full of anger or hatred like one would assume she would have been. Instead, she just felt sad.
But it was not the same kind of sad someone felt when they failed a test, or separated their partner. It was the same kind of sad you felt when a friend let you down, or when you showed your parents something you were proud of, only for them to give a disinterested response. It was the feeling of not being good enough, of blatant disappointment.
She was disappointed, she realised. Abandoned. And that's all she could ever feel when she looked at the ashes of her first love.
It was heartbreaking to see.
Down at the village, through his thick black mask, Kylo Ren scanned the terrain of chaos before him. The noise of crying women and children came from all directions, filled with panicked civillians fearing for what might just happen to them. There was something about this radioactive fear which the tall beast enjoyed. As he watched everyone cowering in his wake, he felt truly powerful—uncontrollable and unstoppable. Invincible, almost.
However, the power of victory didn't last for long, as a pit began to divulge in his stomach as he noticed the two burning x-wings sitting behind the small dune. An odd sense of familiarity weighed on the mans shoulders which he tried his best to push to the ground. A face with a name that haunted him flashed before his very eyes, accompanied by the sound of a girl's laughter. It was a strange laugh, distinctively high-pitched, more a giggle, and he recognise it almost immediately. It was the girl from her childhood. The one who was trying to hold him back.
Kylo Ren closed his eyes, sucking in a deep breath beneath his mask, as he tried to push her from his mind. He didn't love her—he never had. She wouldn't draw him back. She was not strong enough. She was practically dead to him.
Eventually, he decided to not let the pit grow stronger in his stomach and consume him. He had to be strong—he was on a job, after all. If he failed, who knew what would happen to him! He may have been the most powerful man in the First Order, but he had never called the shots.
He faded from his thoughts, returning to the present when his troopers brought forward the elderly man. His boots crunched against the broken sand like shards of glass as he stepped closer to the man.
"Look how old you have become," Kylo began in a pointed voice as he stared down at the elderly man.
"Something much worse has happened to you," Lor San Tekka responded in deep pants. Kylo pitied the man's naivety.
"You know what I have come for," he responded, deciding it was easier to be blunt, rather than wasting time with unnecessary small talk. "The map to Luke Skywalker. We know you have it, and now you are going to give it to the First Order."
"I know where you come from," San Tekka told the lost boy. The memories of Ben Solo running around the Resistance base with his brunette friend stung in the old man's mind. "Before you called yourself Kylo Ren and chose the dark side—the side you were not raised on."
Kylo bit back a scoff. "You don't know anything."
"Try as you might, but you can't deny the truth that is your family," he warned. "Or her."
The last two words the man uttered were what struck a nerve with Kylo for reasons he wouldn't be able to explain. It was the flashes of the brunette that sent hum into overdrive. Before he could stop himself, the darkness consumed hin, and he raised his red lightsaber, striking the elderly man across his chest with it.
As Arabella watched all this, she felt her breath rip away from her lungs, and the ground shook when the man's body fell onto the sand with a thud. However, there was not much time for mourning San Tekka, because her partner Poe Dameron had already shot at Kylo Ren. The hooded figure turned, forcing the laser blast to freeze in midair. The pilot's eyes widened in shock and Arabella wanted to run and save Poe. She knew he was not going to escape this unless she sacrificed herself instead, but try as she might, her feet were frozen to the ground.
She felt utterly useless as she watched the troopers hit the pilot. He momentarily conversed with Ren and the girl wondered what he could possibly be talking about. The interaction was short-lived though, because the troopers were quickly escorting Poe to the nearest ship.
Arabella let out an uncontrollable cry when she saw one of the stormtroopers smack their hand against Poe's face violently. It was like the pair were linked, and she could also feel the strike against his cheek.
Kylo heard the cry from the darkness and snapped his eyes to the right where the sound was coming from. He froze when he caught sight of the brunette standing alone at the top of a nearby dune. The darkness circling them prevented him from seeing the girl's face, but he knew who she was almost immediately. Now he understood why everything felt so somber, so familiar. It was because of her. He was feeling her presence, something he hadn't touched in a long time. A tight knot formed in his stomach.
The stormtroopers remained as still as Kylo, watching him with eager eyes as they expected him to instruct them into chasing after the girl. But Kylo was far too unstable to address her. After a minute of staring right at the brunette girl passed, Kylo broke from his daze, turning to the nearest trooper, who's helmet was masked with a bloodied handprint, and he said to them, "we should go. Now!"
Arabella felt bile rise to her throat, but was also relieved of her safety, when she watched the man and his army return to their ships. She stayed still as they flew off into the sky, the lights of the ships fading into the diamante stars.
"Come on BeeBee-Ate," the girl mumbled to the orange and white droid in a glum voice. "We need to get back to the Resistance."
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i hope you guys are liking this story and wOW i love arabella okay bye
